Brave New World Summer Reading

Brave New World Chapter 1

1.What is the World State's Motto?

“Community, Identity, Stability.”

2.Please describe Bokanovsky's Process. Why does The Director call it the "major instrument of social stability?"

The Bokanovsky process involves the chilling of an ovum to induce meiosis. This yields many identical twins, allowing large groups of them to perform team based tasks. This collaboration is seen as a “major instrument of social stability” as it maintains consistency and efficiency.

3.Why did the doctor wish to keep the Epsilon "embryo below par?"

The doctor does this to ensure the Epsilon child does not exceed the generic Epsilon profile by being too intelligent or developed for his social caste.

4.What does Mr. Foster mean when he says: "We condition them to thrive in heat...that is the secret of happiness of virtue - liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny."? How does this connect to what is happening in Rack 10?

The conditioning makes each social caste believe they are happiest in their group and not among others. It prevents desire for movement on the social ladder and keeps all people satisfied with their place in the world. In Rack 10, the embryos are being conditioned physically to match the mental preparation, allowing them to perform their predestined jobs proficiently.

Brave New World Chapter 2

1.How do babies sent to the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms develop an "instinctive hatred of books and flowers?" Why were Deltas exposed to such treatment?

Shock therapy is used to avert the babies to such useless things as books and flowers. Deltas were exposed to this treatment as part their conditioning; literacy is not a prerequisite of the Delta caste, and they are taught to hate flowers so they don’t make the trek to the country just to see them.

2.What is a State Conditioning Center?

State Conditioning Centers are places where children are further trained to fulfill their predestined roles in society.

3.What is hypnopaedia? Why wasn't it used for Science? What was it used for?

Hypnoaedia is the repetition of information to sleeping subjects as a means of instilling knowledge. It was used for moral education instead of scientific education because the subjects can only really spit out the repeated facts, not truly understand them; thus, the procedure was more effective for teaching moral maxims.

4.How does the Caste system work in the World State?

Embryos are predetermined to be in a caste ranging from Alpha to Gamma. Each caste has different attributes and a varying level of intelligence. Civil duties and careers are decided by the caste of the individual, which is permanent from birth/

5.What does the Director mean when he says, "Not so much like drops of water....rather, drops of liquid sealing wax."?

The information from the hypnopaedic lessons accumulates like wax as they are repeated night after night to the subjects, impregnating their brains with common thought.

Brave New World Chapter 3

In Chapter 3, we begin to learn about how the World State. Please explain how the following areas are different in the World State as compared to our world in 2010.

A) Sex, Monogamy & Romance

There is no marriage and there are no natural births. Sex is something everyone does for fun, and is seen as something healthy and normal. There are no emotions involved. In our world, the opposite is encouraged, with decency until courtship and a respectable marriage.

B) Sports

Sports are regulated by Controllers to encourage business and consistency. Sports are encouraged to promote revenue, not as something sought for fun like in our lives.

C) Entertainment

The people of the World State are entertained only by things such as Electro-Magnetic or Obstacle Golf, mindless games that provide no mental stimulation. Lenina wonders how Bernard doesn't like Obstacle Golf and would rather spend time doing something like going for a walk just to have a chat. In our world, entertainment is far broader, and different people choose to enjoy different things; whether that be something mindless like television, or something with a bit more depth such as a nice conversation with a friend.

D)Parenthood

Contraceptives prevent the consequences of the raging promiscuity. Parenthood is seen as strange and wrong, and natural births do not occur. In our world, it is of course all natural births, and whether or not the parents want to fulfill their responsibilities is up to them, but it is more often than not that parents support their child.

E) Materialism

Like sports, the people of the World State are expected to consume to create revenue. They must meet quotas in spending. Nowadays we choose our level of materialism.

F) Religion

*Religion has been abolished in the World State and is seen as a ridiculous waste of time. They treat Ford almost like a god, but any other belief besides the good of the people and power of Ford is discouraged. This is similar to the Communist states of the present day, such as China, which forbid religion and promote dedication to the country.

G) Intoxicants

Soma is used in the World State by everyone as a means of keeping everyone happy and at peace in the world. Currently, drugs and alcohol are controlled strictly and harbor repercussions, unlike soma.

Finally, to the best of your ability, provide a brief history (a paragraph) of how the World State came to be.

Many were opposed, and in the beginning democracy reigned over the caste system. In A.F. 141, the “Nine Years War” began along with a global economic collapse. The democratic people were faced with the choice of global chaos or the renunciations of their freedoms as individuals. They chose the latter. A cultural revolution like that of Mao then occurred, with the intent of an annihilation of the past.

Brave New World Chapter 4

Part 1

1.What puzzles Lenina about Bernard Marx's behavior?

She doesn’t understand why he won’t discuss plans in public with her.

2.Please provide examples of Lenina using what she learned from hypnopaedia.

She often makes comments like, “What a hideous colour khaki is,” because her hypnopaedic conditioning has taught her that her caste is the best, and that she must always be glad she is where she is in society.

3.Where are Lenina and Henry going?

They are going to play Obstacle Golf.

Part 2:

4.What makes Bernard Marx distressed? Why?

Bernard is smaller than the other men of his caste, lowering his self-esteem and often putting him at the end of cruel jokes. Obviously, this is distressing.

5.Where does Helmholtz Watson work? What is his job?

Helmholtz is a lecturer for the department of writing at the College of Emotional Engineering.

6.What does Bernard have in common with Helmholtz Watson?

Bernard and Helmholtz feel like individuals in a homogenized world. They believe their thoughts supersede those of their peers because they are different; Bernard because of his size, Helmholtz because of his superiority in every field.

7.What is troubling Helmholtz?

He is bored with his work and his productions, feeling that he wants to do something “more intense, [and] more violent.”

Brave New World Chapter 5

1.What would Michael Pollan (Remember? The Omnivore's Dilemma) say about the first paragraph in Chapter 5?

I don't recall ever reading that.

2.What do you think of Lenina's and Henry night out on the town?

The entire night seems rehearsed and preconditioned like their entire lives. They follow a routine that hundreds of other couples follow every night, spending money, dancing, having soma, and ending the night by having sex. There is nothing original to the night in any sense.

3.Why do you think Huxley uses the word "pneumatic" to refer to some female characters?

Pneumatic women would be just that: inflatable. Their heads are empty and they have no more personality or excitement than a blow up doll. The most dedicated to the morals of the state would be the most beautiful because they would have such a pneumatic mind.

4.What is Solidarity Service and what are Bernard's feelings towards it?

The Solidarity Service is a meeting of twelve people who do drugs and try to unify as one being. They are under the influence of soma and believe that the power of Ford brings them together in one mind, as the State should be. Bernard thinks these are useless gatherings and he must fake his reactions.

Brave New World Chapter 6

Part I

1.Why does Lenina think Bernard Marx "odd" - please use specific references from this chapter in your answer.

She finds him odd because he is different from any other man she has had. He wants to walk and talk with her instead of just take her on a routine date and get in her pants.

2. Please provide more lines from Lenina that she learned from hypnopedia (there are some great ones in this chapter!). Do any of them remind you of sayings that we may use - please don't use commercial jingles. i.e. "1-800-54-Giant!"

"A gramme in time saves nine" , "one cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments" , "a gramme is better than a damn" (referring to soma), "Never put off til tomorrow the fun you can have today", "when the individual feels the community reels". The first few seem very similar to the axiom "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." These little rhymes are common in our society too to promote good values or tradition, even if they are invalid.

3. What is Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior?

Fanny believes that the alcohol put in Bernard's surrogate while he was developing in the baby factory causes Bernard to be different from the rest of the men she knows in the World State.

Part II

4. What did the Director tell Bernard about his own trip to the Reservation? Why did it initially make Bernard feel uncomfortable?

The Director told Bernard about his trip a couple decades back with a pneumatic girl he was seeing at the time. They had gone exploring the wilderness, but their horses ran away and they got caught in a thunderstorm. The girl got lost and by the time the Director made it to the rest house, there was no hope of recovering her. Bernard felt uncomfortable at first because of the obvious solecism of the director; he knew that the Director disapproved the trip to New Mexico but still persisted in his story of the past.

5. What does the Director threaten Bernard with if he doesn't change his behavior? Why does it elate Bernard?

Bernard is told that if he keeps up his dodgy behavior, he could be reassigned to a post in Iceland. Instead of this terrifying him as it should, he is ecstatic because this means he is enough of an individual that the company is taking notice.

Part III

6. How does the Warden describe the Reservation?

The Warden describes the reservation as a park ranger could describe Yellowstone, He spits out the facts and tries to sound impressive by recounting the horrific deeds of the savages, who still engage in sex and marriage and speak extinct languages like Spanish. He treats it as a landmark or roadside attraction instead of human beings living life in an "alternative" way.

Extended Essay update presentation

Pablo Neruda

Emotion and Knowledge

Identify a personal knowledge claim, using emotion as a way of knowing.

"Older sisters are irksome." This personal knowledge claim derives directly from emotion. My sister often changes the TV channel when I'm watching it, gets into arguments with me over food or other petty things, and often snaps at me even when I'm trying to be nice. These actions make me frustrated, which often leads to anger because of the annoying habits my sister has. In my angry state, I believe that all my sister like all other older sisters have the common trait of being irksome simply for the sake of angering their brothers. Of course, a fallacy in this thinking is that my sister isn't always annoying and doesn't purposefully seek to irk me. It is also unfair to assume that all older sisters carry a similar trait.

Identify a global knowledge issue that includes emotion as part of the 'knowledge construct'.

"We should pity homeless people." Homeless or other less fortunate people are abundant all around the world, and a common sentiment towards them is that they deserve our pity. We see them living on the streets, often dirty and with little possessions. This triggers sadness within us, but because it is sadness due to an external image it is expressed towards the homeless person as pity. The pity often leads people to donate to homeless shelters or other charities in the hope that the sadness will go away. A fallacy in this thinking is that some homeless people want or choose to be homeless because they enjoy the lifestyle, and thus do not want pity.

Can there be 'correct' or 'appropriate' emotional responses? For example, is it correct to be horrified by accounts of torture?

I do not believe there is a 'correct' emotional response - everyone is different and therefore entitled to their own emotions and resulting thoughts or opinions - but I do believe that there are emotional responses more appropriate than others. Like the example of torture; it is more appropriate to be horrified by pain or torture than to take pleasure in it, seeing as that is the common and widely accepted sentiment, but it is not incorrect to enjoy torture.

Is the knowledge gained from an emotional construct influenced by culture? Are concepts such as patriotism and racism examples of collective emotions?

Culture does have very much to do with our emotional responses to situations. For example, in some cultures when someone points at you, you would automatically feel embarrassed and offended due to the high regard for humility in that society. In American culture, pointing at someone doesn't usually carry emotional triggers, although depending on the situation it can induce happiness, fear, excitement, anxiety, etc. It varies though, as opposed to a culture in which pointing is strictly bad. Patriotism and racism are examples of collective emotions crafted by a culture; if your culture chooses to feel angry towards black people or hate them, then usually you will grown up with racist tendencies towards black people.

Logical Fallacies

Appeal to Flattery

The appeal to flattery would be most commonly used by people we might know as "brown-nosers" or "suck-ups." Essentially, person 1 uses complements or accolades to get what they want from person 2. The flattery seems to soften person 2, and often they will give what is desired to person 1, even if under other circumstances they would have been vehemently opposed to it.

Example:

Tom: Wow, Jenny, you look fantastic today!

Jenny: Gee thanks Tom!

Tom: New haircut? Looks great!

Jenny: *giggles*

Tom: Hey, so I was wondering if you had done that algebra assignment...

Gambler's Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy is used most often by, well, gamblers. It is an overly strong faith in positive probability. Basically, if a trend has been long-established, it is the assumption that the trend must break soon because, well, what are the odds! Those who employ this fallacy seem to forget that more often than not, the odds are highly in favor of the trend, and there is little chance that it will change.

Example:

Jorge: I'm betting on rooster 17.

Pedro: Why would you do that? He doesn't seem to be very strong compared to the others, and he's lost all of his matches so far.

Jorge: Well, no else is betting on him, so I'd win a lot of money. And, I mean, he has to win soon enough.

Appeal to Tradition

The appeal to tradition is used mostly by people who fear change. These people would rather stick with what they know than venture out into something new, even if it's better for them. This is because they have gotten so used to something being as it is, and therefore assume that it is ALL there is. There's no point in seeing something beyond tradition.

Example:

Trotsky: We must adhere to Leninist policies! There can be no change to the USSR, for only Lenin, the divine leader, knew what was best for us, and we cannot defy him!

Stalin: lol

This video is from the current season of Survivor. In it, you can see the use of the Appeal to Flattery. Danielle is using her flirtation to get closer to Colby, as she explains in the confessional towards the end of the clip. She is attracted to him, but she says that she's focused on the game, and will use her coquetry with Colby (obviously a method of flattery) in order to gain his trust and use him as a fall-back in case her alliance with Parvati and Russell breaks down.

Project Implicit

1.How did you react to your results? Were you surprised? Angry or hurt? Pleased? Discuss what you felt and why you think you felt what you did.

I was a bit surprised with my results for the African vs. European demonstration. There is an inherent "racism" of language that was visible in this test; anything dark or black is generally seen as bad and anything white is generally seen as good or pure, especially in literature. The test said that I moderately favored Europeans, which as a white male may simply be an intrinsic characteristic. I don't think I'm a racist, so that thought scares me, but the results do not make me feel angry or hurt.

2.Do you believe that your test results say something about you that you should pay attention to? Why or why not?

Honestly, I don't think the results are an accurate representation of myself. Beyond the innate favoritism of light over dark, at least in the white American society in which I was raised, I am not a racist. I also felt the test was tedious and I'm not sure if my performance was as precise as I would have hoped.

3.Do you think that these tests are valid? When you first saw your results, did you question or accept the tests' validity?

I'm not sure if the tests are valid, because while you are submitting your answers on a computer there are so many other variables that can affect your response. Just the pattern of keystrokes caused errors or time delays. Also, when I took the gender test, I purposefully tried to be a male chauvinist but my result was that I have no favoritism for either sex. So either the tests are invalid or I truly am subconsciously racist.

4.Give examples of the cultural messages that many support attitudes linking a dominant group in your nation or culture with "good" or "superior" attributes and a subordinate group with "bad" or "inferior" ones. Are these attitudes generalizations that can be called stereotypes? How can generalizations be distinguished from stereotypes?

I feel that generalizations and stereotypes are synonymous, as they both imply the homogenizing of unique people. Each human should be treated as an individual, not widely categorized. However, in society it is inevitable that people are compartmentalized. In the locality of Cape Cod, the white rich people are seen as dominant and superior, but not necessarily good; they are perceived more as stingy. Brazilians on Cape Cod are viewed as inferior, due to their prominence in lower-class Cape life (comparisons are made to poor rabbits). The Cape has such a wide array of socioeconomic situations that it is difficult to characterize a general view of each one, and it is especially unfair for a middle-class white boy like me to be doing so.

5. If some of our consciously held beliefs, attitudes, and values are undermined by what Gladwell calls rapid cognition (others call this intuitive thinking or even gut feelings), what do you suggest we can do to combat jumping to (false) conclusions?

We can do nothing. The subconscious, or our inherent and natural human nature, is deep-rooted and can't simply be eradicated. Our beliefs and attitudes help us define who we are.

Symbols

Mjölner

1. What are the cultural origins of the symbol?
This symbol, known as Mjolner, represent Thor's hammer. Thor was the second highest of the Nordic gods. He was the son of Oden. This symbol comes from the Aesir religion, the time period of which coincided with the Viking era. Thor drove over the clouds in his cart, slamming his hammer, Mjolner, to make thunder.

2. Describe the knowledge portrayed by the symbol.
This Mjolner symbol is engraved in stone or cast in metal for use as an amulet. This symbol represents the power of a supreme Nordic god. It is a very fearful weapon, and it is assumed that it would bring power and protection to the bearer. Some people nowadays also wear it as a symbol of their religious affiliation.

3. Is the symbol ambiguous, emotive, or vague?
This symbol is emotive. It expresses power of the bearer and emanates a fear that may even be palpable to a believer. The symbol can be ambiguous too because it also manifests the beliefs of one who bears it for religious reason.

4. What are the problems of knowledge you identify for the symbol?
The symbol may easily be misinterpreted; it does resemble a hammer, but to someone who is unfamiliar with it, they might not realize its deeper meeting in Nordic mythology. The symbol does has different meanings as well, as it expresses power and fear, but it also shows devotion to a religion. Someone may perceive the symbol as a threat.

Save the Tehuelche language!

The Tehuelche language is spoken by the Tehuelche people southern Argentina, the region of Patagonia. The Tehuelche people were traditionally nomadic hunters from the southern tip of South America, the Tierra del Fuego, living in present-day Argentina and Chile. They have inhabited the area for 12,500 years. However, now their numbers have been reduced to only 200 ethnic Tehuelche in southern Argentina. Of these 200 Tehuelche, only four elderly people speak the language fluently.

The Tehuelche have a rich and unique culture. They are a rather tall people, mostly hunters on the Pampas, and they have interesting traditions. The marriage traditions consist of dowries, the slaughtering of mares, religious festivals, and sacrifices to ward off evil spirits. In the case of a Tehuelche man dying, all of his animals are killed, all of his possessions are burned, and all of the meat from his slaughtered horses is distributed to relatives.

The Tehuelche have a creation legend that goes as follows:

1. "For the Tehuelches, Creation was atributed to an ever existing being, who was sorrounded by dense and obscure clouds where the sky and the sea meet. Since he felt very lonely, he burst into tears and cried for a long, unimaginable time. His tears formed the primitive sea, ARROK, the first element in nature. That allmighty eternal god is called KOOCH. When he stopped crying, he gave a deep sigh. His sigh gave origin to the wind, which dissipated the clouds and gave birth to light."

The Tehuelche have a unique syntax and formation of clauses that can be seen here: http://books.google.com/books?id=xfRgLERcAP0C&pg=PA137&dq=tehuelche+language&hl=en&ei=whOqS93pKcGBlAeQlsXRBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=tehuelche%20language&f=false

The following link shows a myth of the Tehuelche and a rough English translation, showing the beauty of the language and the imprecision of the translated text, as it doesn't truly define the unique Tehuelche words:
http://books.google.com/books?id=LjPrXSkf8wMC&pg=PA582&dq=tehuelche+language&hl=en&ei=whOqS93pKcGBlAeQlsXRBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=tehuelche%20language&f=false

It is very important to maintain the Tehuelche language as demonstrated by the examples above, and to, in effect, preserve the Tehuelche culture. Culture is manifest in language, and the two intertwine. The Tehuelche are integral to a comprehension of Argentine heritage, especially the nomadic lifestyle, which translated to the present-day gauchos. The language helps keep the lives of the Tehuelche intact. For example, the creation myth above can only be truly understood if one speaks the Tehuelche language and understands the connotations of each world, as there exist fallacies when it is translated. Even though ethnic Tehuelche survive and their traditions are passed down, without a language, their people and culture are not truly alive.

This picture further demonstrates the beauty of the language, and shows that it has greatly been affected by Spanish oral tradition (words such as Dios), echoing the need for its individual preservation:
Resources:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=teh
http://www.christusrex.com/www1/pater/JPN-tehuelche.html
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/southamerica/tehuelche.html
http://www.bariloche.com.ar/museo/TEHUEING.HTM
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZCYSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA464&dq=tehuelche+language&hl=en&ei=whOqS93pKcGBlAeQlsXRBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=tehuelche%20language&f=false

Perception Essay B

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYSGXw-5qyRKZGRoaG05NjdfNjZmbnpmNjdocw&hl=en

Matthew French

TOK1 - Period B

5 March 2010

B. How, and to what extent, might expectations, assumptions and beliefs affect sense perceptions? How, if at all, can factors that bias our views of the world be identified? Do knowers have a moral duty to examine their own perceptual filters?

Our expectations, assumptions and beliefs inevitably combine to form personal biases that filter our perceptions. We can only really become aware of our biases and the factors that spawn them through the observations of others. These observers can notice trends in our perception, and from there deduce a bias. If they promulgate this observation, the person with the bias can become aware, and from that awareness they can contemplate this perceptual filter and decide whether or not to abolish it.

Perceptual filters are incredibly common. In IB English, we are reading the book Rashomon, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. In one of the stories, we read about the suicide of a samurai. Growing up in the American culture and the Catholic religion, I have been taught to believe that suicide is shameful. I perceived the suicide of this Japanese man to be of the same character until Mr. McDowell explained to us that this suicide, known as seppuku, was actually honorable to samurai. I was never really aware of my disgust at the thought of suicide until I realized that my perceptions were tainted by this belief. Upon Mr. McDowell's illumination, I realized this perceptual filter of mine and recognized that suicide may have many different characteristics.

This is not the only example of a cultural belief and a resulting perceptual filter. My parents have always believed that the United States of America is the best country in the world, and this became even more evident while we watched the Winter Olympics. I noticed that they would only cheer for the American athletes, and if a foreign athlete won an event they would be disappointed. This can simply be defined as patriotism, which is very common, but is nevertheless a blatant perceptual filter. People are often raised with the belief that their country is better than all others, and so wholeheartedly support their nation while disregarding the success of others. Their perceptions are affected by this expectation, which became especially apparent to me while watching these Winter Olympics. I was able to recognize this trait in my parents because I have always been interested more in world unity than geographic borders. My parents may have been aware of the fact that they have a great love for their country, but they did not realize the extent of their favoritism until I presented it to them.

There are some instances in which our perceptual filters should undergo examination once someone makes them aware to us. The book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, describes an incident in which an innocent man is shot multiple times by police officers. The man, Amadou Diallo, resembled a rapist and was described by the officers as looking suspicious. They perceived his actions and appearance incorrectly due to the perceptual filter caused by their expectations of him to be a rapist. As a result, they shot him 41 times. In this case, the officers are now aware of this perceptual filter of theirs due to a bias of assumption, and are now obliged to examine their perceptions before they act on them, so as to prevent another catastrophe like this from occurring.

Sense perception is one of the Ways of Knowing, but that doesn't inhibit the effects of the other Ways of Knowing as perceptual filters. For example, my sister has a perceptual bias that is influenced very highly by emotion. My sister and I have an unspoken competition. She felt strongly that my success was only a degradation of hers, making her feel less important or intelligent than me, and so her perceptions became tainted. Her perceptions of my interests were marked by negativity, because she expected them to be an attack on hers. These expectations acted as a perceptual filter in which she became opposed to nearly everything that she associated with me, and she only realized this when I observed the trend and expressed it to her. In turn she informed me of how I treated her as inferior because of a related perceptual filter in which I saw her interests as basic and generic, and therefore perceived them as unworthy of my attention. In this case it was essential for us to abolish our biases and resulting perceptual filters because it was destroying our relationship.

I stand by my claim that these biases can only be recognized by observers, and then passed on to the person with the perceptual filter. If a bias is present, would it not act as an impediment of its own recognition? Perceptual filters are truly unavoidable, but once we are informed of our tainted perception, we can decide whether or not we wish to examine it morally. Ultimately, we should abolish it if it is harmful, but otherwise we are all allowed our own perception, as influenced by biases as it may be.

Word Count:

799

Bibliography:

Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: the Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York: Back Bay, 2007. Print.

Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. Rashomon and Other Stories. Singapore: Tuttle, 1952. Print.

TOK Blog Project

The way of knowing that reflects me is language. I find language to be the clearest way of expressing a knowledge claim. Words are usually sufficient for me as a knower. A broader range of language entails broader knowledge; the more words and the more languages a person knows, the more concepts they can understand, due to the direct correlation between language, culture, and therefore meaning. Emotion and perception can be very misleading, while language is far less beguiling, especially in the context of my area of knowledge: history.

For me, history is a very important area of knowing. History allows me to reflect upon the present, using deductions based on past events to influence my future decisions. Language is essential for the comprehension of history. Language allows a knower to understand different viewpoints of a wide variety of people regarding any historical event. For example, in history class we have been studying various aspects of modern history. As we read the book, Mastering Modern World History, by Norman Lowe, we are often introduced to revisionist views on historical events. These different historians use their language - which, don't forget, has been influenced by their culture - to express new points of view. Franco was originally seen as a terrible fascist dictator in Spain simply for being aligned with Hitler, but revisionist historians have read historical accounts and then used their own language to describe their analysis of events, creating the idea that Franco actually solved a lot of problems in Spain in the mid-90's. Often these revisionist historians are native Spanish as well, so their culture and their different language provides a different twist on the interpretation of events. Another example of language facilitating knowing history is in my Spanish class. I am reading the book El Laberinto de la Soledad, by Octavio Paz, a book which tries to decipher the character of the Mexican. Because it is written by a Mexican, and because I am reading it in Spanish, I have these different perspectives expressed by the language I know it in. The fact that I know it in Spanish helps me understand it better; instead of needing a translation into English, I learn the history in the way it was presented, in the words whose meanings are inexplicable in English. My comprehension is greater because of this. In TOK class, language and history were used when we read Weekly World News. They discussed historical events in far-fetched articles such as a female movement to take over the world. They discussed historical events that were "obviously" plots of women, but because of the absurd language used I was able to discern the history to be false. Language really allows different viewpoints on history, and because of the varying language us knowers can analyze and interpret differently.

Of course, fallacies occur when language is used as a means of "knowing" history. When history is read from a book, as it is in class, the language is generally straightforward and unambiguous. However, when history is dictated or viewpoints are expressed in speech, the guile of language becomes visible. Language can be subject to some of the other ways of knowing, especially emotion and perception. For example, when speaking with any person about a very recent event, the tone of their voice and the language they use may cause doubt in a person regarding what actually happened. While written history is more direct and the knower can usually evaluate the language from the exact words that are written, the variety of spoken language makes oral history more apt to be misunderstood. It is difficult to comprehend when a person talks to you about an event sarcastically - they could simply be sardonic, or the language they are using, while dry, is actually an expression of what happened.

Polysemy is another interesting facet of language. A word that is polysemous has more than one meaning. When speaking about history, a word used to express an event can be confused because of these multiple meanings. This is evident in oral and written history. For example, in the book Santa Evita, the author, Tomas Eloy Martinez, writes: "Mito in my native tongue is not only "myth" but also the name of a bird that no one can see, and story means "search," "inquiry": the text is a search for the invisible, or the stillness of what flies." p.54. This Spanish word with different meanings can create vastly different connotations based on the interpretation.

History is very interesting, though, because language can completely alter what actually happened. We can make as many interpretations as we want based on the language that presents the history to us, but we truly can never know what happened. History uses language as a means of reinventing a past reality. In the book I am reading, Santa Evita, the author writes about how Eva Peron was changed throughout time. Eloy Martinez writes: "She ceased to be what she said and what she did to become what people say she said and what people say she did." p. 13. There may be a basis of truth to what she did, yes, but the language of people created Eva Peron as an infallible structure of hope, a saint, which she probably was not. Our language dictates history. Our varying expressions dictate how historical events are recorded, and in turn the evaluations we make based on them.

I would like to leave you with a final quote from the book Santa Evita that I think sums up this idea nicely:

"That, I thought, is where written language falls short. It can bring back to life feelings, lost time, chance circumstances that link one fact to another, but it can't bring reality back to life. I didn't yet know - and it would take longer still for me to feel it - that reality doesn't come back to life: it is born in a different way, it is transfigured, it reinvents itself in novels. I didn't know that the syntax or the tones of voice of the characters return with a different air about them and that, as they pass through the sieves of written language, they become something else." p. 73

Glossary:

language - communication of meaning in any way
knower - a person receiving information and knowledge claims; "knows" an area such as history
knowledge claim - a claim made by a knower that they "know" something, whether it be by acquaintance or by the description of other knowers
emotion - any sort of feeling - happiness, anger, sadness - usually expressed
perception - an awareness or knowledge derived from the senses
culture - the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a certain ethnic, social, age, collegiate, etc group; it can be said that everyone has a unique personal culture


Bibliography:

Unidentified Weekly World News articles
Lowe, Norman. Mastering Modern World History. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Paz, Octavio. El Laberinto de la Soledad. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1997. Print.
Martínez, Tomás Eloy. Santa Evita. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print.


Final note: this video we watched in history is another example of how varying language is used to express different views on past events, due to the range of culture and opinion, manifest in language, of the many historians
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-554458576098159340#docid=-2736111333508202187